Jardine Pounds Lofton, Holm Hot in MMA Debut at 'Double Threat'

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- For Keith
Jardine, it was another step on the road back to the UFC. For
Holly
"Hottie" Holm, it was a rousing beginning to her mixed martial
arts career.

Both Jardine and Holm were victorious in their co-featured bouts as
part of Fresquez Productions'
"Double Threat" at the Route 66 Casino in Albuquerque on Friday
night. Jardine earned a stoppage victory over Austin, Texas'
Aron
Lofton at 3:30 of the opening round in their light heavyweight
match. Meanwhile, Holm staggered Wisconsin native Christina
"Machine Gun" Domke with leg kicks throughout their 135-pound
tussle, the last of which left the Wisconsin native unable to
stand, giving the boxing star a knockout triumph at 3:58 of the
second round in the night’s co-feature.

Jardine has been known for his tendency to engage in striking wars
in recent bouts, but in the first fight in his hometown since 2004,
"The Dean of Mean" took a different approach.

After Lofton stunned "The Ultimate Fighter" Season 2 veteran with a
punch in the clinch, Jardine recovered to land a brutal kick to the
body. With the Triton Fight Center product hurting, the 35-year-old
“Dean of Mean” was able to slam his opponent to the ground and
finish the fight with strikes.

D.
Archuleta

Jardine won his second straight.

The win was the second in a row for Jardine, after having bested
Francisco
"Kiko" France in December. The two consecutive wins follow a
five-fight losing streak that saw his exit from the UFC.

"I think he was off balance, I think he got hit. If he wouldn’t
have been off balance it wouldn’t have been such a big deal, but
scared us," Jardine’s striking coach Mike Winkeljohn told
Sherdog.com after the bout.

Jardine admitted that Lofton had decent power.

"That guy’s got really heavy hands, and I’m working on my inside
fighting a lot, so I knew I was kind of taking a risk with that,"
he said.

However, it was his teammate who actually got Jardine’s blood
circulating.

Although she momentarily forgot she was in an MMA bout, Holm
displayed an impressive skill set in her first cage experience.
When the veteran of 33 pro boxing matches floored the Wisconsin
native with what would turn out to be her final leg kick of the
night, Holm turned and bounced in the direction of her corner as if
expecting a mandatory eight count to be administered.

D.
Archuleta

Boxing champ Holly Holm's MMA
debut featured many kicks.

"My coaches were like, ‘What are you doing? Get on her.’ They wound
up calling it, but I wish I would have finished a little better,"
Holm said after the bout.

Holm punctuated many of her combinations with devastating leg and
body kicks. Although she became one of boxing’s most achieved 140
and 147-pound women’s champions, Holm began her combat sports
career as a kickboxer, and those roots were evident in her MMA
debut.

"I probably threw a few more leg kicks on the outside than I should
have, but there was a couple times I threw the kicks without the
punches, and my coach was like, 'Holly, throw hands first.' I had
to bring myself back to that and throw them at the right time,"
said Holm.

When Domke shot for a takedown and earned full mount in the opening
frame -- the first time in her career Holm has been on her back --
the 29-year old
Jackson’s MMA product responded by quickly getting the fight
upright again, passing what many considered to be the biggest test
in her transition to a new sport.

"I really was not planning on being there at all. For the whole
training camp, if I get there, I just want to work on getting out
of it. Even if I’m not worried, and she’s not hitting me hard, it
just looks bad," Holm said.

Credit the training camp for Holm’s resilience on the ground, said
Greg Jackson.

"I wasn’t worried at all because Julie Kedzie
has been mounting Holly, and Holly’s been working out of that for
the last six weeks straight. When she was taken down, I know that
Julie had put in so much work with her that it was going to be a
matter of time before she got back up," Jackson said.

Albuquerque native Trey Solomon
defeated Mean1’s Tim
Dennisson via TKO at 4:35 of the third round in a 160-pound
tilt. Dennisson was able to escape a multitude of submission
attempts for two rounds, but was pounded out in the final
frame.

In the evening’s first professional fight, Mean1 light heavyweight
Lionel
Lanham survived an early assault from Roswell, N.M., native
Guto
Feliciano to score a stoppage at 4:08 of round one.

In amateur action, Mean1’s Eric Evans
battered Eric Sudduth
of Hobbs, N.M., with ground-and-pound before finishing his opponent
with an arm-triangle choke at 57 seconds of the second round in a
heavyweight affair.

In a pair of 175-pound catch-weight bouts, two Mean1 reps went down
as Logan
Sims couldn’t stand up to Martin Sano
Jr.'s onslaught as the El Pasoan took a second-round stoppage
at 1:12 of the frame, while Lalo Chavez
from Albuquerque’s Chavez Dojo stopped Shannon
Curlee in just 73 seconds.

Sandoval Fighting System’s Patrick
Ayala crumpled Giovanni
Monarez with a right leg kick before finishing the fight with
punches on the ground to take a first-round stoppage victory at
featherweight.